More than a dozen business and government leaders spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the nation's capital, advocating to Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin and U.S. Reps. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville and Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville. CHAMPAIGN — As part of a lobbying effort to get federal support for area projects, members of the Champaign County First group headed to Washington, D.C., this week to lobby for projects like The Yards in Champaign, extending the Kickapoo Trail to Urbana and piloting a program that could help villages like Royal. read more